Family Ties That Kill
by ForevermoreNevermore
Summary: They were best friends... almost brothers you could call them. If they were brothers, they might have known. Judai's in the mafia, thinking he knows the most on the entire island. How was he to know that someone was watching him?


_Yayz! Yeah... well... I'm going to go ahead and tell you that Judai and Johan get pretty out of character in this story (I don't mean YAOI), but I mean in their attitudes._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX_

Judai pointed the gun to the ground. It made a slight click as he cocked it and held it up to the light. He held it inches from his nose, pointing at the ceiling. The black plastic seemed to screech as all the helpless victims shot with the gun had. The Slifer Red duelist inhaled the slight acid that always surrounded the gun and sighed heavily. Without warning, the door flew open. Judai, who was (shockingly) never taken on unawares, whipped around and put the gun behind his back in one simple movement.

"Hey, have you seen Ruby?" Johan asked, leaning into Judai's room. He looked around the room and then settled his crystal eyes on his chocolate ones.

"Ruby?" Judai asked as he thought for a moment. "No, I haven't. Why, is she missing?" Johan shook his head and leaned against the doorframe.

"Na, I just can't find her," he shrugged. Judai thought about that for a moment and then cocked an eyebrow at his friend.

"When did you see her last?" Johan squinted an eye closed as he thought.

"We were playing by the ocean and- oh my gosh! She doesn't know how to swim!" Johan gasped. He turned tail and ran out of the room. Judai chuckled at his friend. He was just about to turn back around when Johan popped his aquamarine head around the corner.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. Judai jumped. He made sure the gun was still hidden. It may have just been him, but Judai couldn't help but think that his transfer friend could see right through him.

"What makes you think that?" the brunette asked. Johan shrugged.

"I don't know. You just seemed a little preoccupied," he said, staring Judai down. _I should have known you wouldn't miss something like that,_ Judai thought with grudging respect. Johan might have been a little spacy at times, but he sure did catch a lot of what others missed.

"Nothing's wrong!" Judai said, smiling at his friend. _Or at least nothing you need to worry your intellectual little head about._ Johan smiled back and left, leaving him to simmer in his own thoughts to save a drowning spirit.

Judai went up and closed the door, this time locking it to make sure no more of his friends could interrupt. An open backpack was placed on his bunk and the curtains were drawn back from the window. Judai paused to look up at the starlit sky. A platinum moon hung dejectedly in the corner of his frame, making the whole scene look like a painting. Judai sighed and reached absentmindedly into one of his open drawers. He piled his clothes into the bag and then moved over to his other junk around the room.

Summer vacation had come fast. In fact, Judai hardly even remembered the year. Of course… it's hard to forget fighting your possessed best friend and a killer card. Oh yeah… and destroying villages like ant piles and best friends like the ants.

A gasp escaped his lips as he felt his feelings clamp up in a fit of dispair. Judai slumped down on his bunk and put his hands in his head. He had never felt this guilty… and that's saying a lot. Judai ran his hands along his gun in an attempt to calm his nerves down. It succeeded, so Judai tossed it into his bag with a fond grin. There was a buzzing that came from his bedside table. Judai picked up his phone and answered it deftly.

"I'm in the middle of packing," he grumbled into the phone.

"Good boy. I just wanted to tell you something. There's a group of teens coming to explore our past. I want you to accompany them and make sure they keep they're pimply noses out the present. Oh yeah… one of them is a Shirohara," came the broken, Italian-accented English. Judai smiled despite himself.

"Yes mother. Don't worry, I'll keep them out of our business. As for the Shirohara… I can handle him," Judai said, laughing a bit. His mother laughed back.

"That's my boy. I'll see in you a couple of days," she said.

"Bye," Judai managed to say before the click proved she was gone. The brunette flipped his phone closed and looked out the window. Something kept eating at the very pit of his stomach. Judai rubbed his stomach in hopes it would go away. It didn't, though, and continued to eat away. _Probably just hungry,_ he thought, grabbing a chocolate bar off his table.

* * *

"Hey Judai!" Johan shouted from across the cafeteria. Judai looked up from his bowl of spaghetti and saw his blue-headed friend waving at him from the far wall. Johan ran across the room and halfway across… he tripped.

"Watch it!" some Ra Yellow student growled, glaring down at the floor and the befuddled European.

"Sorry!" Johan said, hauling himself up and grinning at the rude student. The transfer student continued his tripping beeline across the cafeteria until he finally made it to Judai (who was watching the procession with interest the whole time). It took Johan five seconds to catch his breath, but once he did, he was off.

"Guess what!" he said, waving a pair of tickets in Judai's face. Judai put his hands up defensively.

"What?" Judai asked. Johan sat down next to him and stopped waving the tickets.

"I got tickets to Italy!" he practically shouted. Judai nearly choked on his pasta.

"What?" he asked, feeling his stomach jump into his mouth.

"I got tickets to Italy!" Johan repeated. Judai sighed.

"How'd you get those?"

"I got them from my-" he stopped short and the happy look on his face disappeared. "I don't quite remember!" Judai face faulted. Johan quickly put a smile back on his grim face and hopped up.

"Yeah… I've got enough tickets for the whole gang! Here… I mean if you want it," Johan said, holding forward a ticket. Judai looked down at his spaghetti.

"I can't. Thanks though. You guys have fun," he said, trying to make his voice disappointed. Johan cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Why not?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips and staring the brunette down. Judai flinched. _Man… you don't know how much you look like a girl when you do that._

"I'm visiting my family. I haven't seen them in three years and I have some… catching… up to do," he said, chewing over his words before he said them. Johan's eyes widened.

"You're visiting family? Me too!" he said, smiling like Goofy. Judai gave him a suspicious stare.

"In Italy? Where?" he asked. Johan seemed to think about it for a moment before answering, and when he did, his words came out slowly and well thought-out.

"More near Italy and where most people won't see them…" he said, his face looking as though he was saying a tongue twister. Judai screwed his face up in confusion.

"Dude… that made absolutely no sense whatsoever!" he said, laughing.

"Where's your family?" Johan asked unexpectedly. Judai blanched.

"You wouldn't know where it was even if I told you," he said quickly, a lump growing in his throat. Johan turned around and looked over his shoulder at his panicking friend.

"Well who knows… you might know my family," he said, somewhat mysteriously. Judai opened his mouth to comment, but saw that his friend had already disappeared into the massing bodies.

* * *

It was a day before summer break and Judai was itching to go. So were… apparently… all of his friends.

"This is going to be so much fun! I hear the girls in Italy are…" Fubuki stopped and tried to pronounce 'hot' in Italian. He eventual gave up and squeaked out, "hot!" Asuka put her fingers on the bridge of her nose and shook her head in embarrassment.

"I swear… you got all the hormones between the two of us…" she groaned. Kenzan and Sho laughed.

"Some things you're better off without," Jim laughed, pointing towards Rei (who was fawning over a picture in your wallet).

"Rei… would you take the picture of the man that comes in the wallet out? It's just a tad weird…" Daichi said. Rei glared at him.

"That's not what I'm staring at! And it's not weird!" she sniffed, sitting down next to Johan. The European laughed.

"Is it the brunette again?" Johan asked. Rei glared playfully at him.

"No… he's bluenette…" she said, looking back down at the picture. Asuka walked over and snatched the wallet. She arched her eyebrows.

"Wow… he's quite the looker," she said, not taking her eyes off the picture. Judai stood up and walked up behind her. He snatched it deftly from her hands and stared at the picture.

"What's so hot about him? He looks like Johan!" he said, looking at Johan, the picture, and then Johan again.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Johan said, indignantly grabbing the wallet so that he could see the picture. He blanched.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked slowly. Rei looked at him curiously.

"I found it in the hallway. Why?" Johan slowly pulled the picture out of the clear backing. Judai noticed the cursive writing on the back. "Hey!" Rei shouted, trying to get the picture back.

"It's mine! I lost it in the hallway," Johan said, tossing the wallet to the girl. She gaped at him.

"Is that you?" she asked, blushing madly. Asuka, too, began to blush. Johan shook his head.

"Nah, that was my father. He was 20," he said, apparently not noticing the blush.

"Only two more years…" Asuka said to Rei. They giggled, turning around and walking back to the school. Johan cocked his head.

"Only two more years for what?" he asked.


End file.
